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John Prophete, D.D., was a most important personage in the 

 eventful days of Richard II., Henry IV. and V. His record by 

 preferments is as follows : — Rector of Orpington, Leighton Buzzard 

 and Ringwood, Prebendary of Lincoln, 1387; of Chichester, 1391 ; 

 of Salisbury, 141 3; Praelocutor of Aberguilli, Dean of Hereford, 

 1393 ; Dean of York, 1406 ; and Keeper of the Privy Seal to Henry 

 IV. He is named as a witness in that King's will as " John 

 Prophete, warden of my Privy Seal," dated at Greenwich, 21st 

 Jan., 140Q. 



John Prophete was thus the contemporary of such famous 

 Englishmen as Wycliffe, Wykeham, Cobham and Beaufort. He 

 saw the rise and fall of Lollardy and possibly knew many of the 

 intrigues which produced the Act for the burning of Heretics (De 

 Hseretico Comburendo, 2 Henry IV., c. 15). Was he infected with 

 Lollardy ? This is a difficult question to answer exactly but he 

 seems to have had correspondence with the martyred Cobham, and 

 later than this pleaded for one Joan Cobham, in great distress, after 

 Oldcastle's martyrdom (Harl. M SS. , 431). This again leads us to 

 note that much of the correspondence of Prophete still exists, for 

 his Register is in the British Museum {Harl. MSS., 431) and his 

 letters, beautifully written, are in the same Museum among the 

 Harleian Manuscripts. The Prophete letters are interesting from 

 historical and ecclesiastical points of view, and well worth repro- 

 duction. For instance, we find that Prophete attended the funeral 

 of Roger Walden, Bishop of London, whose career was a chequered 

 one in the dynastic revolution that placed Henry IV. on the throne 

 of England. Prophete tells us that he ventured to lift the veil from 

 the face of Walden lying for burial in St. Paul's Cathedral, and that 

 the corpse looked fairer than usual and more like a man asleep. 



But John Prophete was an envoy from the English Court of 

 Henry IV., trying to end what is now called " the great Schism " in 

 the Papacy, which had become the scandal of Christendom. Rival 

 Popes like Urban VI. and Clement VII. had been cursing each other, 

 and then followed Benedict XIII. and Gregory XII. continuing the 

 quarrel. Against both, and the corruptions in the church, Wycliffe 

 had been preaching in England and a little later Huss in Bohemia. 

 Amongst the politicians trying to induce both Popes to abdicate, so 

 that a more respectable Head might be chosen for the church as 

 Pope, we find John Prophete, who described Gregory XII. as a crazy 

 brain-sick old man, with one foot in the pit, and mazy in his dotty 

 old head ! Of course Prophete got into trouble with the angry Popes, 

 being excommunicated and deprived of his benefices, but Henry IV. 

 prevented their accomplishment, and by and bye the crowned heads 

 of Europe by stopping supplies brought the quarrelling Popes to 

 reasonableness, and the disgraceful scenes at Lucca and Sienna to a 

 close. The Prophete MSS. are quite a storehouse of clerical politics 

 for the opening years of the 15th century, but we must now leave 

 them for home affairs. In England he helped Cardinal Beaufort in 

 his Cambridge foundation by transferring the income of Ringwood 

 Rectory to King's College — possibly he had worked the rectory 



